Taking a Turkey out at 140 f or 145?

Next week im making a huge Thanksgiving dinner for 25 people. Im doing 1 giant Turkey and 2 Turkey breasts. I will be brining them and then roasting them upside down basting with a grand marnier butter. I have probe thermometers but im curious to find out the best temp to take it out at. It should raise 20 or 25 degrees, correct? Also the Turkey breasts, how much will they raise in temp since they are smaller and more lean? Any advice would be helpful. Thanks

I thought the general expectation of carryover temperature on a reasonably large but not exceedingly dense piece of food was more like 10%, thus 140F --> 154F. If you're shooting for 165F, it would have to be 150F before you pulled it out. Even then, you'll have to be quite careful about a very warm platter, a good dome or tent, and a distinctly warm place to rest it, or you won't get even 10%.

My recollection is that roughly speaking a very dense and large object (e.g. a whole bone-in leg of mutton) can carry over close to 15%, a very small one about 5%, and anything in between (e.g. a turkey) about 10%.

Chris, I dont understand that concept very well because I typically pull my prime rib out at 110 and they generally carry at least 20 degrees. I know Turkeys can carry over 20 degrees and the temp could change even more if you are using a convection setting on the oven.

What about holding temps? My oven stops at 170º, so if I pull a 18lb whole turkey at 160º , foil it, then open the oven to dump the heat for 5 minutes, return the bird to the oven set at 170º to hold for say 1 - 2 hours, will my bird still be juicy?

Also for the first time last year, in my Bird from Hell, 28lb heritage cooking nightmare (I posted something about it), I was forced to pull the bird and cut the breast out, and return the remaining carcass to the oven to finish. Surprise it worked great everything was cooked, juicy & tender, however this was not a sit down and eat bird, this was a bird for meat. To serve meals I warmed up the breast or other meat in turkey broth with a bit of turkey fat, and it taste great.

Deltadude, I have seen that done as well, where the host pull out the bird and removes the breast and then returns the rest of the bird to continue cooking. It works wonderfully and the breast is cooked perfectly.

Serving additional breasts is a good idea when everyone wants white meat. However I would not put these in at the same time. I would first sear them skin side down in a large skillet, and then turn them over and place the skillet in the oven in the last 45-60 minutes of cooking. During the year that's what I do when I want to serve just a turkey breast.

Convection ovens require less time to cook because you are using a forced hot moving constant air flow. In many cases the heat for a given recipe is lowered about 25 degrees F. Dark meat does take a bit longer to cook. Turkey Breast only on the bone should be watched more closely as they cook quicker. Keep in mind here that the recommended temp top point for poultry is 165 f . This has been proven to kill Salmonella and some other agents. However if you take bird out at about 155 it is still cooking and may rise out of oven to 165. This however does not say that it is cooking at 165, only that it has reached it, and for how long?? Commercial Kitchens and Banquet figure 1 Pound of raw turkey on the bone yield 1 cooked mixed dark and white portion. All white much less and all dark much less.

Ok. I just realized by researching that a Turkey wont raise too much in temp. So I am planning on taking my Turkey out at 155. Its 20 lbs. I am pretty sure it will go 10 degrees. Thanks everyone for all your help! I remember in culinary school the chef saying something about a Turkey going up 20 degrees during the carry over cook period, but that was 10 years ago, so I was probably misunderstood. And Turkey is a lot leaner than prime rib therefore its understandable that it wont go as high.

This year I will be brining my Turkey and then cooking it upside down and basting it occasionally with a grand marnier butter. It should come out great and moist.

Chris, I dont understand that concept very well because I typically pull my prime rib out at 110 and they generally carry at least 20 degrees. I know Turkeys can carry over 20 degrees and the temp could change even more if you are using a convection setting on the oven.

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I think a prime rib is large and dense, isn't it? I mean, a big one, like you'd do? You'd expect that to carry over 15%+. Turkey is hollow and thus less dense, so less carry over. I think that's right.

Basically it's like dinosaurs. I know a lot about these, because my son is 5. Really big dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus Rex could hunt at night because they were so large they were homeothermic: they'd build up heat in the day and then not cool off rapidly at night. Little reptiles like our dissipated world has are so small they don't do this, so either they have a shield (like feathers on birds) or they mostly hunt in the heat at night.

Your prime rib is a T-Rex: once heated up, it doesn't cool for a long time. Your 1/4" skillet steak is a gecko. Figure from there, and be sure to calculate your years in millions, not thousands, or you'll be sure to drop a zero. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/smoking.gif